Sanetti Plateau
Above 4,000 metres, with giant lobelia, tarns and open moorland. The best place in the world to film Ethiopian wolves hunting rodents in the open. Cold, exposed and reachable by vehicle, which makes long-lens work practical.
Filming location · Oromia
Filming in The Bale Mountains
Bale is the quieter counterpart to Simien and, for a natural history unit, often the more productive one. The plateau is a vast open Afro-alpine moorland where a wolf can be seen and tracked across open ground for a long time, and two hours down the escarpment you are in dripping cloud forest with wild coffee at your feet.
Short answer
Bale Mountains National Park in Oromia holds the largest surviving population of the Ethiopian wolf, the rarest canid in the world, on the Afro-alpine Sanetti Plateau at over 4,000 metres. The park descends south into the Harenna Forest, a cloud forest where wild coffee still grows under the canopy. It offers two completely different ecosystems within one permit and a few hours' drive. Wildlife authority permits, park fees and a scout are required, and wolf filming needs a guide who knows current pack territories and long lenses on a stable platform.
- Region
- Oromia
- Altitude
- 1,500 to 4,377 m (Tullu Dimtu)
- Nearest airport
- Goba/Robe Airport, or by road from Addis Ababa
- Best time
- November to February for the plateau; the forest is filmable most of the year
- From Addis Ababa
- Roughly 7 to 9 hours by road, or fly to Goba
What to film here
Harenna Forest
Cloud forest on the southern escarpment with epiphytes, mist and wild-growing arabica coffee harvested by local communities. Very different palette and a strong story about coffee's origins.
Web Valley and Gaysay Grassland
Lower open country, good for mountain nyala, warthog, bohor reedbuck and raptors, with easier access and gentler altitude for the first days.
Tullu Dimtu
Ethiopia's second highest peak at about 4,377 metres and one of the highest points in Africa reachable by road, which makes it unusually easy to place a camera at extreme altitude.
From our shoots
Nearby and related
Other Ethiopian locations
Start a production
Filming in The Bale Mountains?
Send your dates and shot list. We will come back with the permit route, the access position, realistic travel times and an itemised cost — usually within a working day.